Ansible-4.0.0rc1

[Toshio Kuratomi]

Hi all,

We're happy to announce that the Ansible-4.0.0 release candidate 1
package is now available! This update is based on the
Ansible-core-2.11.x package which is a major update from the Ansible 3
package (Ansible 3 was based on Ansible-base-2.10.x). There may be
backwards incompatibilities in the core playbook language. Please see
the porting guide for details.


How to get it
-------------

Due to a limitation in pip, if you are upgrading from Ansible-2.9.x
(or earlier), you need to uninstall ansible before installing Ansible
4. It is also recommended to uninstall ansible-base before upgrading:

```
$ pip uninstall ansible ansible-base
$ pip install ansible==4.0.0rc1 --user
```

The tar.gz of the release can be found here:

* Ansible 4.0.0rc1:
https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/a/ansible/ansible-4.0.0rc1.tar.gz
SHA256: 0221b6503e602fb9a442f170876aa9dbbe8d1204b740a656e0111fbe6c7f4c81

What's new in Ansible 4.0.0
---------------------------

* This version of Ansible is based on ansible-core-2.11.x which is a
new major update of the ansible-core package. It may contain
backwards incompatible changes to the playbook language and command
line programs. Please see the porting guide (linked at the bottom)
for more information.

* We've added a way to get the version of the ansible package that is
installed programmatically::

$ python -c 'from ansible_collections.ansible_release import
ansible_version; print(ansible_version)'
4.0.0rc1

* Collections which have opted into being a part of the Ansible-4.0.0
unified changelog will have an entry on this page:
* https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/4/CHANGELOG-v4.rst

* For collections which have not opted into the unified changelog,
consult the list of included collections in the link below and check
their entry on https://galaxy.ansible.com for information about their
changes.
* https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/4/ansible-4.0.0rc1.deps

* You can find more information for those on
https://galaxy.ansible.com/. For instance, the community.crypto
collection listed in the ansible deps file has a galaxy page at
https://galaxy.ansible.com/community/crypto/

* Changelog for ansible-core-2.11 which this release of ansible
installs: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.11/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.11.rst


What's the schedule for new Ansible releases after 4.0.0rc1?
-----------------------------------------------------------

* Please see the ansible roadmap for the full release schedule for
ansible-4.0.0: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/roadmap/COLLECTIONS_4.html

* Unless a blocker bug is found, ansible-4.0.0 final is scheduled for 5-18-2021

* Once ansible-4.0.0 is released, new minor releases will occur
approximately every three weeks (ansible-4.1.0, ansible-4.2.0, etc).
They will contain bugfixes and new features but no backwards
incompatibilities.

* At the moment, the plan is for updates to ansible-3 to stop once
ansible-4.0.0 final is released.
* We've been putting together a document on issues that would need
to be addressed if someone would like to volunteer to create long term
updates to Ansible-3: https://hackmd.io/plQlGzcFRFGLnPXIeg3cwQ


Porting Help
-------------

A unified porting guide for collections which have opted-in is
available here:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/porting_guides/porting_guide_4.html

-Toshio